Personal Highlights

Enjoy this very random collection of facts (some academic, some personal) about me, not ordered whatsoever.

• I have been to 14 countries and 31 states in the US (plus 3 territories). I love to travel. The opportunities to see so many different kinds of places and meet so many cool people at various conferences and events are one of my favorite perks of being in academia. Full list of countries/territories I have visited: Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, United States and the US Virgin Islands.
• My fastest time solving the New York Times Crossword is 10 minutes 42 seconds. For the mini version, my record is 9 seconds. I typically start my day playing the NYT games.
• My Meyer-Briggs personality type is ENFP and I love knowing other people's personality types (which is very ENFP of me).
• Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. I read at least 30 books per year (mostly fantasy) because it's fun for me, a good way to let your mind wander, and I feel like it makes me a better writer. I also have a (non-comprehensive) list of my favorite books that I recommend.
• My Erdős number is 4 (Paul Erdős--Fan Chung--William Aiello—Patrick McDaniel(my advisor)—me)
• When I was in high school, I won a scholarship for less commonly taught languages. With that, I was able to take an intensive Portuguese class at Penn State. It was 5 hours a day every day for 3 weeks and there were only 2 other people in the class so I learned a lot!
• When I was in middle school, I was invited to participate in the Duke University 7th Grade Talent Search Program. As a 7th grader, I then took the SATs with all the high school juniors and seniors.